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Comment: US foreign policy has shifted from direct intervention to a balancing of power in the world's trouble spots, argues Marwan Kabalan.
Salman bin Abdulaziz, the new king of Saudi Arabia, has done well by cancelling his trip to the United States for a meeting with Barak Obama.The US president was scheduled to meet the monarch before a meeting with other Gulf heads of state at the presidential retreat at Camp David.
Hostile intentions?
It was supposed that Obama intended to use the meeting to strengthen his position when dealing with Congress, with large sections of the lower house hostile to the president's policy towards Iran.
Washington has always insisted that the US agreement with Iran over its nuclear programme was also in the interests of Gulf Cooperation Council members - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and Oman.
Now Obama wants to show that he has the approval of Saudi Arabia, the leading member of the GCC, for the Iran nuclear deal - as Riyadh feels most threatened by Tehran.
Although the US will likely present assurances to GCC countries at Camp David - through weapons sales and defence agreements - the opinions of Gulf leaders will have little to no effect on Obama's strategy.
The overarching strategy of the summit is in essence a way to end US military intervention in the region and replace it with a "management of conflicts" policy.
This would involve the US creating regional balances of power in the world's trouble spots.
Regional powers at loggerheads would cancel each other out, while the US role would be limited to the management of both parties through material and intelligence support.
This strategy has already been implemented in Syria and is is being extended to the whole Arab world.
In Syria, the US balance of power strategy led to a war of attrition with neither side being able to gain the upper hand.
Iran and its regional allies are being weakened by the growing power of various "jihadi" groups.
Now the US is trying to integrate Iran into the regional balance of power through the nuclear deal. Tehran should provide a suitable counter bloc to Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
 | Now the US is trying to integrate Iran into the regional balance of power through the nuclear deal. |
In Europe, the US has taken advantage of Russia's annexation of Crimea to rekindle Europe's historic fears of its eastern neighbour.
Recent moves have destroyed a possible German-Russian partnership, based on complementary interests.
Russia would have been able to provide cheap energy and skilled labour to Germany in return for advanced technology and investment.
This strategic partnership between Germany and Russia was lost when the Ukraine crisis blew up.
Now Germany and other European states are looking for alternatives to Russian energy, while Moscow is looking for alternative markets.
This situation means the US can exploit a European buffer -from Estonia to Azerbaijan - which contains Russia.
During the reign of the Obama administration, there has been increased focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
Exploit and command
This is an attempt by the US to contain one of the world's largest economies and a nuclear power - China.
Beijing took advantage of the Bush administration's war obsession with terrorism and the Arab and Islamic world to bolster its position.
Weakened by its wars in the Middle East, the US will not want to engage in another confrontation - particularly with a foe as large as China.
Therefore, it took advantage of regional fears of growing Chinese influence to create another balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region.
China has played straight into US hands by increasing its military spending to unprecedented levels over the past three years.
Beijing has the world's second-largest military expenditure, and is embroiled in territorial squabbles with its neighbours.
Tensions have grown between China and its neighbours including Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam and South Korea. These countries have resorted to forming alliances with the US to protect themselves from China's growing power.
Just as it did with Russia, the US is slowly working towards containing Chinese power through alliances with concerned smaller nations and through encouraging countries such as Japan to boost spending on (US-made) weapons.
In a way, the Obama administration's foreign policy mirrors US policy at the start of the 20th century, based as it is on managing regional conflicts without direct intervention - until the likely victors become clear.
This happened in the First World War, when Washington intervened after three years of fighting to force Germany to surrender.
Through the Camp David summit, the US is attempting to get Arabs on board with its new policy for managing the Middle East.
However, unlike a global balance of power based on collective regional security, the Middle East's power configuration is based along sectarian lines.
King Salman has had the courage to oppose Obama's plans, and to oppose the use of sectarian rhetoric in a battle with Iran that is political at heart.
King Salman has stood firmly to his principle of not trusting Washington's intentions, and pursuing a policy of self-reliance, in defence of Arab interests - regardless of what Washington wants.
This article is an edited translation from our Arabic edition.
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